NARAL Slams Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s Pro-Life Abortion Record

Sensing the Texas governor is one day away from announcing that he will join the Republican presidential field, the pro-abortion organization NARAL today launched a scathing attack on Perry’s pro-life record.

Titled “The Rick Perry Primer: His Record on Choice,” NARAL president Nancy Keenan opined on Perry’s treatment of abortion and said “my staff and I have been working to answer” the question of what abortion activists know about Perry, who has received A grades from the two top pro-life organizations in the state.

“How a candidate voted on choice [read: abortion] or what actions he or she took as governor tell us a lot about what he or she would do if elected president,” Keenan writes. “Gov. Perry’s choice-related actions as governor of Texas are dominated by anti-choice positions.”

Keenan complains about a bill Perry signed that would allow women to receive information about abortion’s risks and alternatives 24 hours before getting an abortion. Although Gallup polling data shows such laws enjoy the support of pro-life and “pro-choice” Americans, Keenan ripped into Perry with a misleading statement about it.

“Many of the laws he signed inject political interference into women’s private decision-making. Gov. Perry signed into law a measure that would require women to receive a state-mandated lecture that includes medically inaccurate information before they can access abortion care. He then signed additional legislation amending the law to force some women to make two trips to the provider before receiving abortion care,” she said.

Keenan also blasted Perry for signing a bill that allow, not requires, women to see an ultrasound of their unborn child that abortion practitioners normally don’t allow them to see: “Just this year, Gov. Perry signed into law a bill requiring that a woman seeking abortion care undergo an ultrasound–even if she does not want one, and even if her doctor does not recommend it.”

The NARAL president has problems with Perry helping women — both before and after an abortion.

Keenan condemns Perry for taking “strong stances in support of anti-choice “crisis pregnancy centers,” by supporting “choose life” license plates, which allocate funding for CPCs.” She ripped Perry for “sign[ing] a proclamation declaring April 2009 “Abortion Recovery Awareness Month” in Texas. The proclamation claims that abortion “often leads to lasting emotional and mental health problems for the mother…” Perry is not alone in the primary field, as former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty also signed a similar proclamation in his state.”

Ultimately, the pro-abortion activists says ” the prospect of President Perry should make us very worried. He has made inflammatory statements indicating how he would govern as an anti-choice president, calling Roe v. Wade “a shameful footnote in our nation’s history books” and “a stark reminder that our culture and our country are still in peril.”

“Let’s not forget that the president has tremendous influence over reproductive-health policy in the United States,” she concludes. “It’s never too early to take a look at the record of someone who wants to live in the White House.”